(Art) Education in the Afterlife of Massive Resistance: Constructing, Capturing, and Commodifying Racialized Disability in Virginia’s Student Assignment Practices, 1956-1966 and Present Day

Abstract

This dissertation explores discursive functions of disability in pupil placement decisions in Massive Resistance Virginia, the relationship between disability and race that was constructed through these moves, and how these relationships surface in the reflections, perceptions, and pedagogy of a practicing art teacher, Nathan, who works at Arts High School (AHS), a Virginia specialty center high school. Under the umbrella of the Discourse Historical Approach, which relies on multiple, interdisciplinary data sources to explore how discourses evolve, I connect a robust archival analysis of historical data collected in the records of Virginia’s Pupil Placement Board (746 boxes, 1956-1966) with present-day demographics from Virginia schools, school district documents, and nearly 30 hours of interviews and classroom observations conducted in collaboration with Nathan. Utilizing a post-structural feminist interpretive framework that relies most heavily on Critical Disability Studies, Disability Critical Race Theory, and Critical Whiteness Studies, I trace historical throughlines from Massive Resistance to present-day. My findings expose how, during Massive Resistance and in present-day, the language of ability and disability functions to deny Black children (art) educational opportunities and solidifies historically-prevalent associations between Blackness and lack. I put forward a cycle of construction, capture, and commodification, suggesting that in Massive Resistance and present-day, such discourses construct a racialized understanding of disability that is captured by white parents and commodified to accrue additional resources for their already-privileged children, enacting metaphorical and literal harm on Black children and further reinscribing the construction of Black disability. This evidences what I call an afterlife of Massive Resistance in which present-day (art) education operates. I explore strategies of resistance, practiced during Massive Resistance and in present day, which make the movements of power visible and endeavor toward a constructive and collective politics. I conclude by discussing limitations of the study and directions for future research